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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29600406">Faultless</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladsalt/pseuds/Ladsalt'>Ladsalt</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dystopia Rising (Live-Action Roleplaying Game), Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cannibalism, Familial Abuse, Other, Religious Content, Romance, Sibling Rivalry, forced eating, radiation as a a religion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:15:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>725</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29600406</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladsalt/pseuds/Ladsalt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A short story about  Petro when they were about 17 hearing about the Darwin Faith</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>original nonbinary</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Faultless</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Petro sputtered on a mouthful of gore. Pushing against the ground and the body of the land dweller only for Pillar to force their face back down. Blood smeared over their face. Ran up their nose. Guts catching on Petro’s teeth as they gasped for air.</p>
<p>“Eat!”</p>
<p>“Pillar! Sto-” </p>
<p>The older boys hand wound tighter in their hair, yanking Petro’s head up. Suddenly Petro was glad for the blood streaked over their face. They hoped it obscured the watering of their eyes.</p>
<p>“You don’t get to be picky! It’s what we have an youre gonna eat!”</p>
<p>Knowing their brother, knowing the consequences of not doing what Pillar said, Petro took fistfuls of the still warm flesh and swallowed between hiccoughing gasps. Pillar let go of their hair and they nearly choked with the desperation with which they tore the flesh off the body with their teeth and swallowed the slick meat. Satisfied Pillar  moved away and knelt down sinking his own bloodstained teeth into the body. Still Petro could feel his eyes and the young lascarian forced more of the cooling flesh down their throat.</p>
<p>Petro ate until they wanted to be sick.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>-----------------------------------------</p>
<p> </p>
<p>By the time Petro met Emeny Kane the memory of being held down into the open abdomen of a corpse were a long faded memory. </p>
<p>Supplanted by memories of Pillar’s foot pressing his face into the dirt. Of Mother telling them to stop always fighting couldn’t they just get along? Pillar telling hissing that maybe Father would be happier too if Petro were dead. Petro’s own voice begging Mother pleading, and of course Mother’s telling him that there would come a day when he needed Pillar. Her children needed to be there for each other, and If Petro were nicer, If Petro tried harder then...Petro remembered Fathers heavy silence around them.</p>
<p>But he wasnt thinking of anything at all when he met Emeny. Petro would never have admitted to thinking of anything at all that kept him out till the sun had risen walking the streets of the settlement near his hive. </p>
<p>Emeny was from the Church of Darwin, not a priest, but devout nonetheless. Petro had not been much for faith, he’d admitted to them after a few sunlit dates. He did not tell them that he didnt feel a need for an afterlife or karmic justice or any new encouragement to nudge him off the mortal coil. But a few more sunny days sitting under trees with Emeny and he’d begun to think rather differently. </p>
<p>Maybe he was desperate for something to cling to. For the religion. Or the way Emeny straightened the ribbon around his neck with a gentle smile. It all felt rather one and the same. Seeking evolution, seeking the way Emeny always appreciated his slow questions and the way his voice picked up as they both talked. If he had faith. If he trusted them, and if he trusted the glow- what poisoned others would make him strong. Little gifts for Emeny, sharing food with them, embroidering little  shiny baubles on their clothes when they had run their hands over his clothes admiringly.</p>
<p>Emeny didn’t know anything about his family- well they knew he had one. But Petro nervously dodged questions and gave obvious avoidant half answers and Emeny would put a hand on his and say he didn’t need to tell them if he didn't want to, and didn’t ask anymore. </p>
<p>It was all Petro could have asked for that they let him keep that part of his life, and their part separate. That during the day he listened to Emeny talk about their life and their job and  helped them around their hive when they needed. Soaking up the Glow of the sun and the tainted earth which Emeny assured him would touch his flesh even through the layers of clothing and rotting veils. They promised his irradiated flesh would be as anathema to those who the glow did not guide, and home like a beacon to those it did.</p>
<p>At night hive was, as it had always been, a womb and a tomb. Petro would curl up in a corner not long after most of the others had gone out and then slink out quietly with the rising sun shortly after the rest of the hive had crawled back in to sleep.</p>
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